Correct way to play AA?

Hi all. I'm a fairly new player, mostly playing $2 SNGs at the moment but there is something sticking with me, at first I thought it was a bad beat but now I'm convinced I'm doing something wrong.

Last night i was knocked out twice in a row after going all-in post-flop with AA, and it happened again tonight. All three times I raised 4xBB, unsure as to what happened last night, but tonight I was called by two others. The flop came K 5 7 unsuited, villain 1 bets 1/2 pot, I reraise all-in (as I could not have lasted another street of betting) and he shows pocket fives.

Should i bet stronger with AA pre-flop or did i play the hand correctly? As soon as I saw the hand I thought "oh here we go again, someone is going to catch trips on me" and there you go, it happened.

It depends on your table, I would have played it like you did. However if you are at a table with a bunch of loose all in yo-yo's and think you will get someone to call, shove it PF.
I guess it would depend on stack sizes as well, if you are short def shove PF.

Sounds like you played it fine. Shit happens.

In micro buyin SNG's you'll find alot of players who will flatcall preflop raises with small pr's, even once the blinds have gone up & they are NOT getting the implied odds to try to set mine. (you should really only be set-mining in the first couple/few levels). In later levels it's a different story obviously....where a sm pp could be a reshove or just a shove pre depending upon the situation.

Sounds like you made the right play. Like pooffy said if your short stacked or if the table is really loose than you might want to push. Sounds like you played it well guy just got lucky, its going to happen sometimes.

I would say you played the hand right, if your short stacked push preflop for sure but if your table is very loose and i push mostly all the time depending on position.

Yup, just like most people have said really, i suppose you take a few things into account, what position your in first, (low stakes) you wanna be thinking about betting bigger the earlier you are bc you do 'usually' get called on low stakes and you want to be called but even though you have AA you dont want a calling frenzy so bet big early and maybe (depending on your opponents) min raise or even flat call in the SB to try re-raise. So you always take into account your opponents, if there are loads of callers and raisers think about getting your chips in straight away. My favourite AA move low stakes....all-in.

GL!

Thanks a lot for the advice everyone, it's good to know that I played the hand correctly, I think next time I will try pushing all-in in the mid or late stages of a tournament if I'm in early positon, or at least raise 5-6xBB to push out weak hands.

I agree the problem really is the low stakes players are willing to call with almost anything and they over-value low PPs

Just because you have the nuts dosnt mean your going to win all the time. sometimes you need to swich up the way you play them . in the lower sng some times it like your playing on party poker

You really didn't do anything wrong...it just happens. Like Doyle said, "You're gonna win a small pot or lose a big one". Don't let this change your game.

Well, usually it's all about luck in this situation. But my way of playing it would be re-raising only, until all in. That way, if the other player limps all-in after the flop with virtually no strong hand on the flop, then he might be having a better hand. I had a lot of situations where i folded my AA after the flop, but the only way i could be aware of this is by re-raising.

sayou played it well don't worry. sometimes luck plays a afacotr

As everyone already said you played it well just got unlucky.Btw AA is the worst hand in online poker they almost alway get cracked so you have alot more of this situation to come in the future especially at low stakes enjoy lol.

You played it right, that's just the risk of not pushing. You give your opponent to outflop you. But at the same time, you are unlikely to land a big pot. But getting a small pot is better than losing. lol. Good luck on your future tournaments.

They do not always get cracked. LOL. they get cracked somewhere around 15-20% of the time.

Yep, you played it right, but don't worry, shit happens all the time with AA & KK, they get cracked with low pair hitting set or something, even 56 beat them, but it's just bad luck I guess.
Try to raise more like 1/2 of your stack or re-raise if someone push.

GL

had AA today in an mtt, actually i was sitting comfortable in chips, second at table with about 50 BB, 1 limper i raise to 5xBB, the limper calls (he plays 84% of his hands and has me covered) board comes 554 he checks, i bet, he moves all in i call, and he has J5, what can you do? you played those As right but sometimes they get cracked.

You played it right but try to remember that AA is an overpair, nothing more nothing less, and over pairs do not always win pots. Also, try to look long term. If a person with 55 called you they would be behind statistically. If you were to play the same hand 100 times against any underpair you would win at least 2/3 of the time. Why not add them to your buddy list and search them out at the tables? Hey, they are going to pay you off eventually.

I agree with most of the answers. If this was a full ring cash game, your preflop raise would be light. Most low pairs will call up to 8 big blinds to get implied odds on flopping a set, which in this case is what happened. Pushing all in post flop is a lot riskier than getting it in preflop where you are the favorite. If you don't improve on the flop you have to consider what beats you at that point. Obviously, a set of any single card shown, Kings up, or a random 2 pair. You have a high pair and are the favorite against any one pair hand, but when you get to the turn and river unimproved and you have 1 or more players raising, you have to figure that the AA hand is dead.

To me it depends on the position and how many people are in the hand...if theres a bunch of people and im starting off in early position i usually like to throw out a decent raise to get all garbage hands out off the table... If theres not many hands to begin with i may slow play them and hope it goes well. After the flop whether i make a set or whatever i usually bet out, get a feel for what the players have and etc.

It's really frustrating losing with the best hand pre-flop, but those things happens. At least the guy who beat you had a hand, I'm not sure if he did the right thing by calling (since i'm not aware of all the circumstances)

What really bothers me the most are donks who call your pre-flop bet while you're holding pocket of aces or kings and they turn over some shit like k-4 suited, or q-7.

Pocket aces is not the worst hand in online poker.

That would be 72o.

Matter of fact, pocket aces is the BEST hand in online poker.

Also, it seems like my aces hold up almost always.

LOL

I think you played it correctly, just unfortunately got unlucky and the villain hit the trips. Happens to all of us, thats why its poker. I think I got a better chance to win with 2 7o than the bullets because of the amount of times I lost holding them.

To reiterate what almost everybody else said.. you played it just fine. No straights or flushes possible on the board, with an overpair.. there was no reason to think that your Aces weren't good.

I think sets are the most difficult hand to put people on. With low pocket pairs like 55s.. some people like to limp with them, and then call with a raise like that, hoping to hit their set. I know I do sometimes, haha.

Anyways.. right move.. just a bit of bad luck on your side this time.

keep it up and eventuallythe variance will catch up and you'll witnthose hands

I took a few days off poker, today I went back, got pocket As, and guess what.... cracked again! 4 times in a row. I'm on a streak of losing to low pocket pairs hitting trips.

I know it is the best pre-flop hand but i really hate aces and I now get a feeling of dread when i pick them up.

$2 sitngos allow players to play more loosely and carelessly because of the low buy in amount.Pocket aces in my opinion should be played the same no matter what the dollar amount is. Each situation is different and you can't play Aces the same way everytime.

Your right Altanta. The only reason AA can be 'the worst hand' is the expectation (preflop) of having the winning hand all the way to the river, rather than reading the board and the betting patterns. AA can be a curse for people who do not know how to fold pocket rockets.

You could try folding your poc A's pre flop or you could accept the fact losing, (my apologies I'm running short of o's ), with poc A's 4 times in a row is irrelevant. You are apparently getting your money in with the best hand. Keep it up.

I tried playing low stakes tables for a while (1/2 cent) just to get a handle on what diffrent hands and plays are like, helped me decide a lot quicker what my odds were, this helped em with this as i used to be too rash with AA, try and get the play to the flop as others have said, i try to look at the chances of the flush mainly or a pair on table that could route you out, AA is the best pair but without the back up it can be just a pair, Gl!

Aces might be the best starting hand, but they're just 2/5 of a full hand. The world changes when that flop comes down, so don't tell yourself, "I have aces, I MUST win!" all the time.

This thread is awesome. It's nice to know that so many horrible players still exist in a world full of information.

This is a beginners thread, so you should expect that most of the viewers will not be the best players in the world.

Don't mind him. WV likes to make little comments like that without...you know...saying, "Hey, that's wrong because X, try Y instead."

(He's crabby)

how would yo play pocket aces then ? just curious.

I like to employ the "bet until they bleed" strategy.

FWIW I wasn't referring to everyone ITT with my above comments. That was for the win small lose big / AA never wins online / maybe you should fold AA in 3bet pots idiots above. That's just simply not even close to being true but people who have no ****ing clue spout that crap non-stop and it makes me glad that they keep depositing.